Protests in Georgia due to lack of Russian tourists

On August 16, hoteliers of small and medium-sized hotels in the city of Kobuleti (Ajara Autonomous Region) on the Black Sea held a protest rally.

They called on the Georgian authorities to compensate for the material damage caused to them due to the absence of Russian tourists.

“The season has failed. All 80,000 lari reservations have been cancelled, and we have to pay our bank debts from August 20. How do we do this when there is no income, and tourists who stayed here for two or three days do not come? The state must fulfill its promises and help us with something, the victims said. In particular, debt restructuring or interest subsidy.

Mayor of Kobuleti Mirian Katamdze said that the authorities are looking for ways to help, and the issue of subsidizing bank interest is being studied.

Nino Burjanadze, the leader of the opposition Democratic Movement, said that the Georgian authorities more than ten times reduce information about financial losses due to the fall in tourist flow from Russia. In her opinion, the losses should be estimated more than 10 times higher.

“Sixty million, in my opinion, is a very small number. All the experts said the damage was ten times greater, about 700 million.”

According to her, the damage is evidenced by a record drop in the rate of the Georgian lari, when it reached almost 1: 3 to the dollar.

Air traffic between Russia and Georgia will be closed at least until the parliamentary elections in this country in 2020, if the situation does not radically change. Such information is reported by experts in diplomatic circles. Now the tourist flow demonstrates record values of the fall - up to 70%, there are "faithful fans" who are ready to go with transfers and by car.

Source: tourprom